Men's Basketball

Express Round Out Coaching Staff With Two New Hires

Aug 06, 2018

By Chris Schmidbauer, Sports Information Director

Toledo, OH -- Owens Men's Head Basketball coach Bruce Johnson announced, on August 6th, two additions to his new coaching staff. Johnson has hired Donte Davis as his lead assistant, and he also has brought Kyle Ernst aboard as a volunteer assistant coach.

Ernst should be a familiar name to Express fans. He has served the previous two seasons as the men's basketball student manager. He has been promoted to an assistant coaching spot, where he will maintain many of his duties last year, while having a more active role in the coaching side as well. As a manager, Ernst was responsible helping the coaching staff during practice to better prepare the team for their upcoming games as well as running clock and assisting in drills. His game day duties are organizing uniforms and equipment, tracking fouls and time outs during games, and handling team needs prior to the start of game.

Ernst is a graduate of Whitmer High School in Toledo.

Donte Davis comes to Owens from way of Division I Longwood University. In his two seasons with the Lancers, he held the title of Assistant Director of Basketball Operations and Video Coordinator, where he was in charge of all game and practice film plus stats. He also helped organize travel, practices, and recruiting.

Prior to that, he spent one season (2015-16) at fellow OCCAC member Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio, where he served as Assistant Men's Basketball Coach and top recruiter. During his last two seasons, Lorain Community College reached a 40-19 record with the recruiting class Davis signed. They were also nationally ranked (#10) while winning the Region XII championship.

Davis spent two years as the head Junior Varsity and Varsity assistant at perennial high school power, Cleveland Central Catholic. The Ironmen went 35-13 in his two seasons with the program and made it to the District Finals twice. Ten of the student athletes he coached would go on to play at the college level.

Davis also spent one year as the Junior Varsity and Varsity Assistant coach at Beachwood High School, where he coached three other college basketball players. He has also spent three years coaching AAU basketball for Team NBA based out of Cleveland Ohio.

Davis played at Lakeland Community College in 2008-09 and Lorain County Community College in 2010-11. He has a Bachelor's of Arts in Secondary Education from Ashford University and an Associate's of Applied Science from Lakeland Community College.

The Express begin play Saturday November 3rd at home against Oakland Community College.